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yendiOne of the mixed blessings of reviewing for PW is that every once in a while, you get a book that just blows you away, and makes you want to shove it into the hands of everybody you know, like G'Kar handing the Book of G'Quan to Garibaldi, and insist that they read it.
And I can't do that, since we're not supposed to talk about what we review (and certainly not before the book's out, when I can at least claim to have read it via my bookstore or library). Other than by writing a glowing starred review, of course (not that even all starred reviews fit this bill; this is more like a supernova).
I haven't read Jo Walton's Among Others yet (still waiting for it to hit our library), but this book is every bit as good as that book's been described as being, if that makes any sense.
The point being, sometime in the next few months, there will be an amazing novel coming out, and although I can't say what it is, you should read it.
As an aside, I looked at my reviews for last year (note that "this year," for me, effectively begins in mid-October, as I was reviewing 2011 books by then), and I starred four books total, out of about 75. That's below the one-in-eight ratio that's generally suggested. This year, I'm up to three stars (counting the one I'm talking about above) and could have had one more (I left two in the hands of my YA editor, having starred one book right before getting two more great books in a row, and he bumped one of them up). I know there are cycles, and even good ones (like now) still have things like the piece-of-crap I ripped to shreds earlier this week, but the little slices of the YA and SF/F/H markets I've read over the last few months have been really good. I hope it's that way everywhere, and that this is actually a great time for good books, although I suspect I'm just getting lucky here.
As another aside, happy as I am with much of what I'm reading, I'd love to see the entire realistic fiction subgenre of "angsty teen white boys having a crappy time at school and also maybe working on healing a parental relationship" go on hiatus for a year or two. I realize I read a disproportionate amount of them (as there are fewer male reviewers for YA than female at PW), and there are certainly some good examples of the genre (I starred one last year, even), but man, does it get overwhelming. It's like the epic fantasy of realistic teen fiction.
And I can't do that, since we're not supposed to talk about what we review (and certainly not before the book's out, when I can at least claim to have read it via my bookstore or library). Other than by writing a glowing starred review, of course (not that even all starred reviews fit this bill; this is more like a supernova).
I haven't read Jo Walton's Among Others yet (still waiting for it to hit our library), but this book is every bit as good as that book's been described as being, if that makes any sense.
The point being, sometime in the next few months, there will be an amazing novel coming out, and although I can't say what it is, you should read it.
As an aside, I looked at my reviews for last year (note that "this year," for me, effectively begins in mid-October, as I was reviewing 2011 books by then), and I starred four books total, out of about 75. That's below the one-in-eight ratio that's generally suggested. This year, I'm up to three stars (counting the one I'm talking about above) and could have had one more (I left two in the hands of my YA editor, having starred one book right before getting two more great books in a row, and he bumped one of them up). I know there are cycles, and even good ones (like now) still have things like the piece-of-crap I ripped to shreds earlier this week, but the little slices of the YA and SF/F/H markets I've read over the last few months have been really good. I hope it's that way everywhere, and that this is actually a great time for good books, although I suspect I'm just getting lucky here.
As another aside, happy as I am with much of what I'm reading, I'd love to see the entire realistic fiction subgenre of "angsty teen white boys having a crappy time at school and also maybe working on healing a parental relationship" go on hiatus for a year or two. I realize I read a disproportionate amount of them (as there are fewer male reviewers for YA than female at PW), and there are certainly some good examples of the genre (I starred one last year, even), but man, does it get overwhelming. It's like the epic fantasy of realistic teen fiction.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-04 05:54 pm (UTC)Also, now I'm dying to know what book this is. *)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-04 05:58 pm (UTC)And you'll find out pretty soon. :-)
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Date: 2011-02-04 06:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-04 06:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-04 06:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-04 06:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-04 06:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-04 06:14 pm (UTC)